Wheels Day PICS! ....my least late thread ever

lol, 'm at Goodwood tomorrow morning . Might have to wait till the bank Holiday!

More pics please!

Great shots in here, of some great cars.
What is the car that has the face as a lens? I'm guessing it has some form of american indian name.
And is that the indicator? If so, that is awesome.

Deffo 53 then

^^ Not the worst idea I've heard recently. That'd look epic


Right, here am some moar then. There are too many photos to get through to try and contrive a story or anything, so we'll just go with the order they come up on Photobucket, yeah? This may take a while, bear with me. First installment...

Chrysler Three Hundred (letter car), not to be confused with the 300 (non-letter car). 1969. Sort of like a super-sized Charger innit. I guess that makes it a super-charger? Thankyou, thankyou so much.







Slightly bonkers take on the lead-sled chop rod. I believe this to be an A70 Hereford, but certainly it's some kind of 50s Austin weirdness. The truncated metalwork suits it very well, I feel





An Allard J2, the original turn-key gentleman's racer. American muscle meets British design and handling prowess. Winner



No wonder the police in the 70s had a reputation for extreme curtness and disgruntlement. It's because they had to pursue knavish villains and blaggards in their MkII Jags using the worst example of miss-construed Leyland optimism ever unleashed on an undeserving motorist. Yep, the Allegro. 1300 Super, mind. None of your curse word...





Amazons go a long way to dispel the fuddy-duddy image associated with your average Volvo driver (or Volvons, as they're correctly called). They look superb whether stock-ish and tidy...



...or slammed and moody on moondiscs





This is not your average Anglia, this. Not just on tyte rimmage and sprayed in glorious colour, but also stuffed full of Cosworth YB engine, I guess this would have to be an Angrier. Arf





Insouciant racy Aston parked miles away on the exit road, not sure if it was anything to do with the show but felt it was worth papping anyway!



More Austin weirdness, the in-no-way overblown old emblem as seen on the ubiquitous Sevens and that Herbert Austin was so proud of he even insisted badge-engineered cars such as the Jaguar (then Swallow) versions retained the badge. Let's see... wings? check? Steering column? check. Steering wheel like angelic halo? check. Wheels pounding up dustcloud? check. Any more motoring motifs we need to fit in? Maybe a lightning bolt as well? Hmmmm, too much?



Strange to think as defining a muscle car as the Hemi 'cuda sprang from such relatively humble origins as the Barracuda, but that's the beauty of the old American car philosophy; a performance package to suit every price point. This '65 model predates even the embossed fish emblem that came a year later, making do with a geometric motif on the surround of the rear windscreen that is still one of the largest pieces of automotive glass ever commissioned







Funny to see amidst the literally zillions (welllllll... OK, not literally. Trillions, maybe) of gurt big American pickups a very Yankee looking truck that actually hails from the Midlands; a Bedford Type J



Always plenty of aircooled goodness anywhere you go, as befits a car that was both ubiquitous and now, curiously, collectible and valuable. I always have time for a nice Beetle.





Not seen this before. Flocked wheels! Not sure how durable a finish this will be, or how easy to keep clean, but from what I remember of the abuse I used to mete out to Action Man their heads proved seriously durable and robust, and they were essentially flocked, so maybe this is the way to go



Money, apparently, can't buy you love... although it can buy you a reasonable facsimile of it including amyl nitrate and ladyboys, anywhere along the Reeperbahn as long as the cash holds out. Another thing it can't buy you is patination of this quality. Only time's celestial paintbrush can achieve such purity. And clear up that awful burning itch you picked up in Hamburg





Not sure how useful this will be for an air-cooled engine's airflow... nor, for that matter, as a spare wheel without a tyre, but it does look quite cool and I guess it's a pleasant variation on the contrived scene roofrack with achingly retro junk bestrew in a deliberately nonchalant style across it. Short version; me likes



Me likes this Beetle/Van/Hotrod/Torture device/Sex dungeon on wheels, too. Nahhh, you can never have too much black nor too many spikes. And barbed wire is actually very underrated for its protective properties as, say, a timing belt cover. Never again would you be so grateful to just get your fingers trapped in a moving pulley as after getting too close to this thing





BelAirs seem to be becoming the Ford Escort of the show scene... i.e. there appears to be one on every street corner... whilst the Escort becomes some sort of blue-collar unobtanium about as accessible to the man in the street as a Blower Bentley or the third moon of Arcturus IV. Which is a shame, because over-exposure inevitably compromises appeal and when it gets to the point you're thinking, "God, not another BelAir, I just CBA" soemthing's gone wrong. Let's try to re-ignite some BelAir love, shall we? For example, this '54 aptly named "The Beast" looks meaner than a failed chainsaw juggler. Not the sort of thing you'd want to take home to meet your mother. Or even to have run over your foot. Not sure what its wheel trims have come from, but I'm sure they're not OE Chevy... maybe a 50s Dodge Coronet or Custom Royal or something?









This '55 looks tough enough from the rear, and clearly a dragster pure and simple. From the front the giant 'charger and wastegate poking through the hood and sharing space with the iconic rocket mascot hint at its capabilities







...and that's part of the problem with the ubiquity of BelAirs (well, for me anyway). I always think "oooh, that's a nice shot there" and then download the pics... and file it away with the other hundred almost-identical photos I've taken of '55 BelAir mascots. Somehow it's a car that just needs to be red, though. Unlike the Da Vinci Code, which doesn't deserve to be read at all, only to be used as nicely-wrapped firelighters. Appalling blight on the face of literature (this joke only really works if you tend to read these threads out loud to yourself, of course, and thus the play on the "red/read" homophone would work well... but anyone in earshot would probably think you were a bit odd)





with that said, this black '55 makes a compelling case for itself. Billet wheels can neither be cheap, easy to clean, nor particularly loved by the MOT man...





By 1960 I always feel the BelAir was looking a bit run down, poor thing. The face had gone all "corporate Chevy" and lost its cheeky wide grin and even the once-proud and pert fins had sort of flopped over as though you'd finally got to meet Mae West only to find age and gravity had wreaked their worst and it was all held up by strapping, smoke and mirrors. But then that black one they did on Fast'n'Loud did a lot to revoke my disillusionment, and even the silly aeroplane flying down the side doesn't upset me any more. As an aside, note the campest ever photobomb by a random passer-by from the bloke in the beige loafers and pink shirt. Oooooh, hullloooooooo, sailor!









See? this is what we like, proper pert and alert upright fins, none of your droopy Dame Ednas



By '65 they were even more "corporate-Chevy"-looking, although now in a good way (and I stress this is only my own personal bigotr...ahhh... opinion. They look to me like they should be black, low, shiny, and preferably driven by Tony Montana waving a blooper-equipped M16 out of the window while shrieking crack whores party in the back seat








The missus has finally gone to bed so I can get in to watch Match of the Day now. please check back regular-like for further updates. The cars, not the football

So, Plymouths then. The late 50s were a heyday for Plymouth, heralded by designer Virgil Exner's "Forward Look" re-branding. The '57 model range was deemed so modern and advanced it was launched under the slogan "suddenly, it's 1960" which must have confused some of those less mentally agile (or Texans, as they're known) no end. Anyway, the Belvedere had once been the top of the range full-size and was still the top trim level, above the Savoy entry-model (once the Plaza was dropped in '59. Confused yet?). The Fury was the performance option for the Belvedere, made famous by the alleged appearance of a '58 Fury as Christine. I say allegedly because the Fury was only available in Buckskin Beige that year. In fact the film used several tarted-up Savoys and Belvederes for the donkey work and only a pair of Furies for the beauty shots. Anyway, this isn't any kind of Fury, nor is it a '58. It's a '59 Belvedere and proud of it







yep, fins were in, fair to say. The Forward Look meant basically rockets and jets and fins and wings and space-age frippery. Seems kitsch and bonkers now, but that's the curse of hindsight. Don't forget this was twenty years before Gerry Anderson's UFO and that was supposed to be set in 1980! A 1959 Belvedere parking next to you at the 7/11 must have looked liek the Martians had landed. Moving on, and perhaps even more zany, is this 1960 model... which must have confused the Texans even more by actually being launched in 1960... proves that the Austin Allegro can't even truly claim it's second allaged Unique Selling Point (the other being that it's more aerodynamic in reverse than forward). Yep, it's not the only car to rock a square steering wheel either. Sad times. Especially liking this one as it has Betty in the back window, my fantasy love interest. She's mine, I tell thee











In a similar way to the Fury being the top model in a range, the BelAir was of course based upon the (relatively) humble Biscayne. This was Chevy's entry level full-size car, and eschewed much of the trinketry and ornamentation of the BelAir, which in turn was less glitzy than the Impala. Nowadays, of course, even a poverty-spec Biscayne like this 1960 tends to stand out in a car park next to F*rd Focusses and Renault Meganes...





The Vincent Black Shadow was the original superbike and Stevenage's finest product to date. At a time when bikes were still mostly pushbike frames with an engine loosely glued to it, with tolerances measured in half-inches and when a 250cc displacement was considered sporty, the Black Shadow used the engine as a stressed member, displaced nigh on a litre, had adjustable suspension and steering. Designed to give injured airforce servicemen the thrills they needed, the maintenance was engineered-in and things like the clutch were designed to be used with two fingers, unlike the hand-breaking gorilla grips on other bikes. Contrary to what know-nothing fools like Richard Hammond might allege, this one is actually a Rapide, on which the Black Shadow was based. You can tell because the crankcases don't have the black stove enamel that gave the Shadow its name. It was still well over a 100mph bollide, probably capable of 120 in its day. Hunter S Thompson was one of the many famous Vincent afficianados, commenting on it in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that "if you rode a Black Shadow at top speed for any length of time, you would almost certainly die". You have to love the attention-to detail, from a time when engineers cared enough about their product to machine Vincent HRD logos into the covers for the pushrods





By 1959 the Pontiac Bonneville had become a model range in its own right, having started as a trim package. This was a very expensive and fully-appointed motor, some option levels could even exceed Cadillacs on price. They are also genuinely massive, takes about a week to walk around one. This year debuted Pontiac's much-trumpeted "Wide Track" development, pushing the wheels out in the fenders to improve cornering. Albeit slightly redundant on a car that takes corners like a greased hippopotamus on roller skates, but imagine how bad it'd be without the handling enhancement! Got fins... I also love the little Chief Pontiac logos enamelled on the headlight peaks, and the sparkly bejewelled carpet (I'm guessing the latter wasn't a Pontiac option)













By '67 the Bonne had adopted Pontiac's slightly awkward stacked headlight look and slimmed down a bit, losing the excesses of the '50s finnage and rocket thruster lights. Still got some presence, mind and still a genuinely huge car!





The Bloodhound was on display in its big orange tent, presumably one of the last appearances before it heads to RSA for the record attempt. Oddly, for something that can re-arrange the laws of physics, it's slightly underwhelming in the flesh (albeit bloody massive) due to its need to be utterly streamlined and smoooooth there are kind of no features to draw the eye. And it's far too enormous to photograph sensibly



Nice to see beach bugs still have a place in car culture. Probably the most unsuited vehicle to the British climate ever, you don't even get canvas windows like on a Lotus 7, for example. But they do look proper



It's a fin-off! Gargantuan Bonneville vs pert Buick Special. Another appearance of that car colour that perfectly mimics the paint in my downstairs bog, too



and in the interest of balance, some preposterous styling at the sharp end. Literally, in this case. Some pointy Buick noses



everyone loves a nice grimy pickup, don't they? This show was awash with them, and givent hat the Ford in all its derivations is supposed to be the most sellingest vehicle ever, there sure seem to be a lot of Chevys around. In fact, the stepside seems to have become the BelAir of the truck world (see also Ford Escort under "common as muck shed somehow becomes showcar icon"). Anyway, this one isn't a stepside so that's OK. This is a C10 Apache circa '63



This is neither grimy nor a pickup. Camaros are not uncommon at these things and I made a conscious effort not to take too many pics of them, trying to stick to the more unusual stuff (cf Mustang). However, some just demand photographing, such as this perfick '67



And this Z28 is immaculate, although I was slightly put off by the owner being a total knob at me ("don't take any pics of that, it's a rusty curse word-heap" he goes, grinning like a Bedlam regular... which clearly translates as "take lots of pics of my car, it's the most awesome thing ever". Why not just say that? I wondered how he'd have reacted if I'd just gone "you're right, it's ****" and put the camera away and walked off). Annoyingly, it was too good not to include some photos, lol





The forgotten Cadillac; a '72 Caprice Classic. Looks proper in a white so crisp it made everything else look dull and grey





I wonder if Capris will gain the sort of ridiculous prices that Escorts now command, as people are forced to seek cheaper alternatives as the 'scort is priced out of the market. If so, better get moving before they all return to the soil! For me, I'd take a nice 2.8 any day over a 'scort simply because they were more of a part of my yoof. It's funny how we all make different associations with the remnants of our past, innit? My grandad had an Escort (in brown) so in my mind they'll always be an old giffers car. My mates and the cool kids tooled around in Capris...





One thing that will never be cool is a shocking pink Cappucino with a humongous Big Gay Wing and dorifftuu styling (read; "dents"). In fact, if there's a more metrosexual car in the road then it had to have once been owned by Liberace and passed on to Elton John. For that very reason, of course, this is achingly cool without even trying



Like many American model identities, the Catalina started as a trim level and gradually became a model in its own right. Appearing on cars like this '53 Chieftan as an option, it was cleverly called a "hard-top convertible" due to the pillarless window treatment giving a big airy cabin. This was still at a time when iconography was unrestrained, and Pontiac played heavily on their nomenclature derived from Chief Pontiac, leader of the Ottawa Indian uprising against the British. The French sold out the Ottawa, failing to provide the promised support (no cultural cliche involved there, clearly *cough*) and the insurrection was crushed. It's fair to say the descendants of Chief Pontiac probably weren't too chuffed at the miss-appropriation of his image to sell cars, but this was at a low point in the rights of native Americans so their voice wasn't heard. Sad to say, the Pontiac designs certainly have left a heritage of some of the most arresting and impressive mascots in automotive history.









By the time this 1960 model came along all the full-size Pontiacs were Catalinas of some kind, excepting only the Bonneville. In addition, 1959 saw a complete re-branding of the marque, dropping the politically incorrect Native American imagery in favour of a modern new badge, a red inverted arrowhead with a four-pointed star contained within. These cars played heavily on the new platform geometry, earning the Pontiac-encouraged nickname "wide-track Tigers" for their stance and cornering ability. Still some vestige of the 50's finnage remained to lend some visual baroque cues though (sorry about the repeat of my earlier post about Pontiac, this is being franchised to a couple of other forums, lol )

Oooh I like that black and white job.
Very err.. bold.
Really liking the shot of the Cortina's hood with the mirror finish clouds in it. Nice work, that one.

Errr... apparently not, sorry. I do remember seeing some Corsair action but I seem to have failed to take any photos


So, where were we? Oh, yeah...

Mercury Cougars are something that's taken up a fair amount of my time... well, Rich/Phil's is anyway... so it's nice to see a few others about for a change. First up was this '69 Dan Gurney replica, which looked and sounded superb



but perhaps even nicer was the '70 Eliminator version we coincidentally parked next to on arrival. A real item of beauty, the owner restored it when he got it but it's got enough scruffy edges and wear that it doesn't look like it ought to be parked and not used. Spot on. Being the Eliminator it's got the big Boss motor, too. The '70 front isn't my favourite with the Roman nose centre piece, but y'know, I'm not complaining












Vauxhal's ownership by GM goes back into the mists of time,1925 in fact, so perhaps it's no surprise they've often popped up randomly with very Americanesque cars. Bear witness, a '56 (I think) Cresta





"My" Olds 442 was there (by which I mean I covet it on an almost sexual level). I seem to see it at every show nowadays but for some unknown reason I managed to completely fail to get a picture of it so you'll have to make do with this '70 Cutlass instead



Even though the Daimler Dart (or SP250 as it really ought to be known after Dodge claimed infringement of the Dart name) is by all accounts a terrible car and undeniably extremely awkward aesthetically, I just can't resist taking photos of them. I guess it's just the depressed bottom-feeder fish face (I mean, it even has barbels!) that makes me feel sorry for them



This is as close as I got to the DMC1, another car that I tend to end up taking near-identical photos of every time I see one so in a way this poor effort makes a nice change. And it is at least showing off its party piece



A rather rare beast next, certainly this side of the pond. A marque you probably either know about and thus love with something close to reverence, or have never heard of and are nonplussed by all the fuss. A Diamond T, the absolute apex of pick-up royalty







Random pic of an engine cover, purely cos I liked the skull paint thing going on. I guess this might be hydro-dipped? If not, someone spent a lifetime with an airbrush in this engine bay!



perhaps and even more random pic of a Citroen squatting in the grass like a broad-bottomed filly relieving herself on the post-pub stagger home. I've no idea why, but that's the only image this pic conjures up, which probably says more about me than the car



Edsel Ford then. And Ford Edsels. Both heroic failures really, the man truncated by complications following stomach cancer, the cars killed by unloved styling and price points. Often miss-described as a marque intended as a tribute to Henry Ford's son Edsel (who succeed and preceded the old man as President of Ford Motor Company, Henry had to step back in after his son's death), this is not strictly the case. By the time the Edsel range was launched Henry Ford himself was dead and his grandson and Edsel's son Henry Ford II was opposed to using his father's name as a car range. By now, Ford was a publicly traded corporation and the board vetoed Henry II's opposition.

The new Edsel range confused everyone. Everything was against it, despite Ford's much-vaunted market research claiming they'd built the car everyone wanted to own. There was no brand loyalty, the cars were controversially styled with their horse' collar grilles (crueller jokes of the time nicknamed it the "vulva" and alleged "if it had hair around it, it'd be called an Ethel"), and the cars were unreliable. The lack of dedicated plants such as Mercury and Ford products were made in meant the Edsel range had to be assembled around the undiminished quotas of the other brands. Workers often could not complete assembly in time, and the unfinished parts were placed in the trunk of the cars with instructions for assembly addressed to the dealership mechanics. They often did not get finished at all, or to a low standard, leading to quality issues. The revolutionary push-button gearchange baffled drivers and often malfunctioned due to control wires running alongside the exhaust and overheating. They had many unique features such as the scrolling dome speedometer, which were difficult and expensive to source spares for. They were based on either Ford or Mercury platforms, meaning assembly and parts sourcing was a nightmare throughout production. The rear indicators were confusing, apparently pointing the wrong way as the sheetmetal was not allowed to be altered from donor vehicles to keep costs down so the designers had to fit them into what was already there yet make them appear unique. Politics within the boardroom meant the range had as many enemies as friends and arguably killed the marque more than anything else. Finally, the Edsel range was priced slap-bang between Ford and Mercury, so no-one was quite sure if it was supposed to be upmarket from a Ford or slightly less upmarket than a Mercury, so they stayed away in their droves.

Nowadays, of course, the three-year mayfly life of the Edsel range and the hugeness of its white elephant failure plus the now-appealing period styling means they're much sought after, and rightly so. After all, who can resist the charms of a pale pink Ethel... errrr, Edsel. I love them, and it was great seeing four on the day including two '59 Villager station wagons as well as the '58 Ford-based Ranger and a scruffy patinated one I failed to get any good pics of! In a way they bear their tragic status proudly, with the almost arrogant E-in-a-planet emblem still aloof despite years of tarnish. Of course, the Edsel range did live on in the early Comets, as previously mentioned. In fact, so keen were Ford to get rid of the stocks of Edsel parts that early Comet keys were in fact Edsel ones with the centre bar of the "E" removed to make them look like a "C"























I've had a thing for Elans since first seeing Diana Rigg tootling around in one in the Avengers. The +2 perhaps slightly less so, to be fair. The proportions just don't seem as perfect as the two-seat roadster... or maybe it's just cos Diana never had one...



El Camino is Spanish for "the Road". Not sure why, it just is. Arguably a more accurate name when Chevrolet decided to cut the back off their full-size car range and call it a pick-up would have been "El camión" or "the Truck". Perhaps slightly less romantic-sounding though, admittedly! Much as I love the later models that were like a Chevelle with a bed, the earliest version such as these '59 models are perhaps even more bonkers for retaining full-on Impala styling, even down to the zany fins and rear lights. Spiky headlights are spiky











Eleanor? Nope, just a replica but still a damned fine-looking car. Numberplate strategy desperately needs changing!



1959 was a big year for Buick, being the year of a total range revitalisation. The new Electras were at the top of the tree, and huge not just in terms of the re-vamp. Indeed, the Electra 225 model name referred to their 225-inch length! The super-size dimensions meant the engine could be correspondingly vast, a 401 as standard with a four-barrel carburettor. Much fuss was also made of the styling, including the much-trumpeting "Delta Fins" by which presumably they meant "triangular". Still, she got some presence, don't she?












It might be perceived from earlier comments that I'm anti-Escort and this certainly isn't the case. When they're as tidy and immaculate as this RS2k I can definitely get the love, even if there's never been any personal attachment for me to the brand. I genuinely fail to get what makes them upwards of 50 grand cars, though, especially when equivalent and arguably equally capable products from period rivals are nowhere near. Is it purely scene tax? Discuss, lol. Don't shout at me though. Anyway, this is lovely;





Another opinion that's caused no end of arguments is my insistence that E-type coupes are preferable to the droptops. It's not me just being contrary for the sake of it. I just feel the roofline detracts from the styling fails of the car such as the appalling offset fail and just adds to the lovely swoop of the metalwork lines. It's not as if I expect anyone to agree with me, like

Glad to hear someone does! Pleasant surprise to hear there's anyone still reading this out there, lol. But sadly, no I didn't take any more pics of the E-type


If the old cliche that trucks built America is true then Fords are more guilty than most, since I think I'm right in saying the F1 and all its derivations since is the most-sold vehicle ever still. This is a good thing, because we all love a tidy pick-up. Don't we? There was certainly a massive range of them here, and Fords as much as any. Weirdly, you tend to see Chevy stepsides more often but there you are, life doesn't have to imitate art. Anyway, there was the full range of style on offer from grungy and used/abused examples such as this circa 1950 F1





to this restomod and flamed up '56 F100. And I, for one, love them all. Scooter Boy Dave is going through some kind of truck-based midlife crisis I think, cos every time we found a new pick-up he'd start muttering on about how tidy it was and how useful it'd be. Mind you, he'd need an older one like this, he's too short to get into one without running boards to help him up







and on to a completely different flavour of Ford. This '70 Falcon was suitably Mad Max-ed up, although it did look like it might have had a rather hard life up close



This '62 Falcon Squire wagon is perhaps more representative of the breed, with the iconic rocket thruster rear lights and all. Also have to respect any car with gunsights cunningly disguised as Ford emblems on the fender edges!







Time for a departure from the Fords for a bit (don't worry, they'll be back) and a quick look at cars starting with the word "fire". Firestarters, if you like. Sorry, sorry....couldn't help that one. Anyway, I bet the first thing that sprang to mind then was the iconic flaming chicken...



...and all those childhood Smokey and the Bandit fantasies. Yep, the Firebird has certainly had some pretty attention-grabbing styling cues in its time, and even bereft of the massive decal they could steal the show, as demonstrated by this example rocking the Formula 400 hood look



However, were it down to me I'd have this tidy '68 model back when Pontiac were the performance daddies and this was musclecar nirvana. For me, the styling is spot-on, tough and lithe but without the "look at me" excess it never really needed





However, the most arresting cars with "fire" in the name weren't the ubiquitous Pontiacs, but from probably the last American manufacturer most people would think of. Give yourself several internetz cool points if you came up with De Soto then! The marque was formed by Walter Chrysler himself way back in the 1920s, named for no obvious reason after a 15th century Spanish explorer and coloniser of the Americas and thrown into the Chrysler stable of five marque identities. Specialising in large luxury cars, the company was as much a victim of Chrysler's internal competition as any external pressures. Unlike Gm and Ford, who were careful to price point their products to avoid stealing sales from other in-house brands, Chrysler had no such compartmentalisation and thus the Dodge Custom Royal, for example, muscled directly into De Soto's core marketplace... as did the Chrysler Royal, Newport, Imperial...

Before their demise in the early 1960s, De Soto produced some truly memorable cars and due to their utmost rarity this side of the Pond it was great to see a few at the Wheels Day. For example, this '56 Firedome. Believe it or not, the Firedome was actually the entry-level De Soto at this point. Its name derived from the engine, which was a 291 cu in Hemi! As was essential with 50s American cars, each model demanded its own brand of heraldry and badging, complete with rockets and chrome everywhere











...and as was expected by the car-buying public, the heraldry had to change for each model year... because otherwise, how could the Joneses next door know at a glance that you had this years' model on the drive? This is shown by the remarkable fact that there was also a '57 Firedome here









and the final De Soto was a baby blue Fireflite. This was the range-topping offering from the stable, the longest and widest car, the biggest motors and the most overblown styling. Believe it or not, a '56 model served as the Indianapolis pace car, apparently due to it's "outstanding performance and superb handling characteristics". Weird. I've photographed this example before, so didn't get many pics but now I'm wishing I had.





and to round off the Fire section where we came in, a final Pontiac offering. The Firebird Firehawk is a loathesomely hideous car in almost every respect, but I do quite like the rear lights. Cos they're a bit trippy...



One of the defining street rods of the day was the Chevy Fleetline. A late 1930s design that was interrupted by America finally waking up and realising there was a World War on in 1942, when it was re-released in the late 40s it was with a total re-design to keep the pre-war underpinnings fresh. Thus styling features like the integrated fenders, sloping roof-trunk line and raked windscreen made it eminently suitable for roofchops and hotrodding. A bit of pinstriping never goes amiss, either









It's amazing automotive factoid time! It's no secret that the mid-70s OPEC oil crisis changed the face of car design for ever, particularly in America. The big beast gas-guzzling dinosaurs heard their death knell sounding, and strangling emissions and fuel efficiency measures were just around the corner. All kinds of airpump and ill-conceived bodgery ensued. Cadillac especially were suffering, as the Fleetwood Brougham had just hit the heights of their biggest ever motor. Struggling with the concept of making an eight litre V8 seem economical, some unsung genius employed the corner markers as a sop to the economy brigade. Corner markers were a long-established aid to driving twenty-foot cars, enabling the driver to judge the dimensions when manouvering in tight spaces. The '75 Fleetwoods incorporated three little lights into the corner markers to indicate to the driver how economically they were using the loud pedal. They went from green to amber to red, presumably indicating in miles-per-gallon terms "terrible", "appalling" and "catastrophic" respectively...